1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of communication systems and, more particularly, to a method and system for making service offerings available on a priority basis using voice invocation.
2. Description of the Related Art
Communications systems can provide users with interconnect services and dispatch services. Dispatch services are typically provided by two-way radio systems, unlike the interconnect services provided by today's cellular systems. A dispatch group call service, for example, enables a user to communicate with a group of people simultaneously, usually just by depressing a push-to-talk (PTT) button. The PTT technology avoids call set-up time and enables individuals to immediately engage in half-duplex conversation over the interconnect system.
Evolution of voice over wireless IP has enabled improvements in Push-to-Talk (PTT) which has taken the form of Push-To-Talk over Cellular (PoC). PoC is not restricted by two-way calling limits or multiple call set up controls, and allows more individuals to be connected and active on a call simultaneously. PoC utilizes the internet protocol as the dominant transport technology which can support higher layer protocols to establish, modify, and control multimedia sessions between multiple clients. Multimedia sessions based on the internet protocols facilitate flexibility in establishing mobile data services. Mobile data services are offered by service providers to obtain information content, and to perform transactions. Mobile data services operate according to an open standard for improving access and interaction with mobile internet applications. The common application framework provided by the IP multimedia sessions establishes and controls multimedia sessions for mobile application services.
The multimedia session protocols provide the communication medium and media types and transports to invoke and connect a multimedia session. However, they are not concerned with how the user of the service interacts with the service provider, or how they communicate with the service interface, or when the media is provided, and if the media is delivered in a timely and pertinent manner. Prior Art Voice Recognition Server (VRS) technologies within the telephone infrastructure provide for applications such as interactive voice response (IVR). However, a user generally needs to know a number, or find the number, of a voice response service to engage the voice based application. Access mechanisms and service numbers are not directly available to a user. A need therefore exists to discover services.